UK Broadband Usage Doubles in 2020

Broadband usage in the UK increased by more than 100% due to the pandemic.

10:28 06 January 2021

A recent survey conducted by Openreach shows that broadband usage in the UK more than doubled in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of people to work, socialise and study from home. 

 

Based on the data released by the broadband network, the data consumption rose from 22,000 Petabytes (PB) last year to 50,000 PB in 2020. It highlighted increases in live sports streaming, video conferencing, and video streaming. The survey noted that the busiest day of the year for broadband was Boxing Day when a record of 210PB was consumed across Openreach's networks. 

 

Colin Lees, chief technology and information officer at Openreach, said: “It’s been a year unlike any other and we believe that’s played a major part in this huge jump in data consumption.

 

“We know more businesses asked their employees to work from home throughout most of 2020, so connecting remotely has been and continues to be important for everyone.

 

“January and February saw data consumption at around 2,700PB per month – before the pandemic brought about a big increase – with most months at more than 4,000PB – for the rest of the year.

 

“In terms of capacity, our network has coped well during the pandemic. We have a team of tech experts working hard behind-the scenes to make sure there’s enough network capacity for every eventuality.

 

“They’re constantly preparing for things such as major retail events like Black Friday or the release of the latest big ticket TV and film titles on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.”